Feeding mechanism



May 2, 1933. Q L, 051- 1,906,333

' FEEDING MECHANISM Filed an. 15, 1950 s Sheets-Shet 1 Gil? van GZaacZe Z. P05? May 2, 1933f c. L. PosT 1,906,333

FEEDING MECHANISM Filed Jan. 15, 1930 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 C(a 11616 L, P05 Z May 2, 1933. Q PO 1,906,333

FEEDING MECHANISM Filed Jan. 15, 1950 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Patented May 2, 19 33 Tes - CLA DE L. Poss; on CHICAGO, ILLINoIs means PATENT FEEDING MECHANISM Application filed January 15, 1930. Serial No. 420,917.

The invention relates to. feeding devices for feeding paper stock from apile or hopper to a machine such as a printing press.

The invention isparticularly designed for feeding envelopes, shipping tags and like pa per stock to the press.

It is one of the prime objects of the invention to provide a means which is extremely simple in character for successive feeding thestock from a hopper.

It is a further object of the invention to employ one or more rotatable elements located. Preferably below. the hopper having means intermittently movable into the. path of travel of the. stock, said means including means for frictionally engaging the stock to thereby cause it to be fed from the hopper.

It is another object of the invention to pro: vide means such as thatjust referred to which provides means for holdingthe stock in the hopper and intermittently feeding the stock therefrom. i i

A further object of the invention is toemploy a disc rotatable relatively to the open end of the hopper to thereby intermittently present different portions of the disc to the stock to thereby respectively hold the stock within the hopper and feed the stock therefrom. Another object of the invention is to em;- ploy a pair of oppositely rotatable elements: having means for frictiona-lly' engaging the stock to cause the latter to befed from the 2PP 1 i Another feature of the invention is to provide oppositely" rotatable elements capable of holding the material or the stock within the hopper and intermittently feeding the stock therefrom having means for frictional:

ly engaging the stock to cause it to 'be fed from the hopper, the frictional means being rotatable in synchronism with each other into and out of the path of movement of thestock conta ne in the h pper to thereby feed t e orricae stock fromthe hopperto a machine such as a if printing press.

:Another feature of the invention is to provide means which may be regulatedto insure the feeding of a single article from the hopper, this means belng adjustable. i

. Anotherobject of the invention is to provide a device such as th'at above referred-to having comblned' therewlth an agitator or jogger which is arrangedanddesigned so as. a

to 'cooperatewithother elements ofthe struc: ture to insure against feeding more than a, single piece of stock from the hopper.

Theinvention has; these and other objects, all-of which will be more readily understood when readin conjunction with the accom} panying drawings which illustrate one embodiment of which the invention is susceptible,it being evident that changes and modi fications maybe resorted to without departing from the spirit of the appendedclaims forming a part hereof. a j In the drawings,- F ig. -1 is a side elevation of a printing press having the feeding means associated therewith. I

Fig.2 isa; plan view of the feeding mecha-' nism; 2' I W I Fig. 3 is a section taken on line 33. of,

Fig. 4 is a view, partially in section, taken on line H of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 isa section taken Fig.4;and F. r

Fig. 6 is a sectionalview of a fragment of a feeding'disc employed in the structure. y .In the embodiment ofthe invent-ion ilfustrated in the drawings, the feeding mechanisnr generally designated A is associated with a printing press generally designated B. Thelatter includes theusual inlz fountain lO ink roller 11 and the ink distributing rollers lQ; printing. press of the type; illustrated includes. a rotatable platen and other elements forming no part of the present on. line 5%5' of iaveatiq and; thsrefere wi l, not he plained in detail. The printing press structure generally designated B includes ashaft 13 from which power is taken to operate the feeding mechanism generally designated A, thepower being derived from the shaft 13 through the medium of a chain or belt 14 which extends to and causes rotation of the sprocket 15 secured to the'shaft 16. The shaft 16 has a gear 17 which meshes with a similar gear 18. The gear 18 is mounted upon a shaft 19 which is journalled at its opposite ends in side frame members 2020. This shaft 19 carries a feed roller 21 which cooperates with a feed roller 22 provided to assist in conveying the material or stock fed from the hopper to the printing press after it has been extracted from the hopper. The roller 22 is mounted upon a shaft 23 also journalled in side frames 2020 as clearly shown in Fig. 4. y I

It may be here stated that the side frames 20-20 are connected in any" convenient manner with a supplementalframe which is secured to some suitable portion of the main fraine'of the printing press generally designated B. A pinion25 is mounted on a vertical shaft 26, the latter being journalled in a transverse portion 27 of the supplemental frame of the feeding mechanism generally designated A. The shaft 26' carries a sprocket 28 over which is trained a sprocket chain 29, the sprocket chain 29 being in turn connected with a sprocket 30 secured to the verticalshaft 31, the latter of which is also mounted or journall'ed in the stationary por tion such as 27 of the frame A of the feeding mechanism. V V

By referring particularly to Figs, 4 and 5, it will be noted that the shaft 31 hasa gear 32 mounted thereon which mesheswith a gear 33, the latter'of which in turn meshes with a gear 34 which cooperates with a gear 35."

The shafts 31 and 36 to which the gears 32 and 351 are respectively connected are, as before stated, suitably journalled in the main frame and each of these shafts respectively carry dics designated 37 and 38 which are arranged below the hopper generally designated 39 within which the stock to be fed to the printing press is'retain-ed and provide means for feeding the stock from the hopper.

The =mechanism including the gear 18, shaft 19, pinions 24 and 25, sprocket 29 and sprocket 30, the disc 37-38 secured to the shafts 31 and 36 will, byvirtue of the gear train including the gears 32 to 35, inclusive, cause said discs to rotate in opposite directions. By referring to Fig. 2, it will be noted that each of the discs 37 and 38 extend into the path oftravel of the material confined in the hopper 39 and that each of these discs 37"ai1d 38 are respectively provided with segmental portions respectivelydesignated 40 and 41. Thesesegmental portions 40 and 41 are produced of some preferably resilient material which will frictionally engage the lowermost article in the hopper and thus cause the material to be fed therefrom to the feed rollers 21 and 22 from which the article is in turn fed to the conveyor generally desig; nated 42 which, in the present instance, includes the conveyor chains 43 and 44. These conveyor chains 43 and 44 are provided with lugs such as 45 (see Fig. 3) which engage an edge of the stock and convey it to the printing elements of the printing press. Each of these segmental portions 40 and 41 are held relatively'to the discs 37 and 38 through the agency of a depressed portion 48 provided in each of the discs. These segmental resilient frictional elements 40 and 41 are preferably locate'd'to extend from the periphery of each disc toward the center thereof and are preferably of wedge or triangular shape with the vertex located so that it initially engages the stock, and thus prevents the possibility of buckling of the sheet when the resilient elements 40 and 41 initially engage the sheet. It will be evident that since the discs 37. and 38 are arranged relatively to the hopper so that a portion thereof extends inwardly beyond thesides of the hopper, that said discs provide means for maintaining the stock within the hopper during and after functional operation of the segmental portions ,40 and 41. It will further be evident thatithese segmental portions 40 and 41 are disposed and arranged relatively to each other so that they operate in synchronism to extract a sheet from-the hopperv and that the remaining por-- tion of the'discs also act in synchronism to function to hold the material within thehopper.

The hopper 'gener'ally designated 39 is in the present instance comprised of the two elements 47 and 48 which are supported through theagency of bars or rods 49,, connected with the side frames 20-20.

Thefront of'the hopper generally designated 39 vis formed by the plate 50 also se- This mechanism 51 includes the. knurled screw-threaded member 52 which engages a shutter 53 which is adjustable by virtue' of the screw-threaded member toward andaway from'theend 5,4 ofthe plate 50 and'thereby provides variable means forregulating the distance between an edge of the shutter and the stationary block ofba-r 62.

V A means is provided for jogging the stock contained in the hopper to assist in feeding the stock from thehopper. I t'may be here stated that thislast'mentioned structure is not absolutely essential to the operation of the device as in many instances, it may be entirely eliminated. This jogger and feed is most clearly shown in Fig. 3 and includes a lever 55 pivoted at 56 to the main frame element or plate 57 in 38 may be also journalled. The end 58 of the lever 55 extends into the path of rotation of the pin 59, which extends from one face of feed the lever 55 has a rod 60 connected at 61 to the lever 55, and this rod 60 rides upon the block 62 supported by the frame element 57. It will be evident that when the pin 59 engages the end 58 of the lever 55, the rod or bar 60 will have a slight endwise and reciprocable motion imparted to it which will assist in jogging the material contained in the hopper and lift the rear edge of the stock so that the resilient segments of the discs I 37 and 38 may pass said edge and engage the under face of the stock adjacent the forward edge thereof which will prevent buckling of the stock and assist in feeding said stoclc from the pile contained in the hop-per.

From the foregoing description of the invention, it is manifest that an extremely simple mechanism is provided for successfully extracting a commodity from the hopper and that the mechanism includes a rotatable member having an element which intermittently rotates into and out of the path of the commodity contained in the hopper, which by virtue of the resilient character of said element will frictionally engage the commodity and cause its extraction from the hopper. It is further evident that the mechanism includes two discs or similar elements which are oppositely rotatable, each of which is provided with means for frictionally engaging the commodity and in which said discs rotate in synchronism and cause the resilient elements to intermittently and simultaneously engage the commodity. It is further manifest that the remaining portion of the discs provides means for maintaining the remaining articles in the hopper.

Having thus described the invention what I claim and desire tocover by'Letters Patent is:

1. Ina feeding device for feeding stock from a stack, the combination of rotatable means for successively feeding said stock from said stack, and means for elevating one portion of said stack out of the plane of rotation of said feeding means and relatively to another portion and thereby arrange a portion of the stack to allow said feeding means to engage said last mentioned portion of said stock to feed a sheet from said stack.

2.. In a feeding device for feeding sheet stock from a stack, the combination of means for engaging said stock and feeding said stock from said stack, said means being rotatable into and out of the plane of the lowa m t h e f the s ac and m ans [f r which the discs 37 and roller 21. The opposite end of sitely rotatable elements moving a portion of the lowermost sheet of said stack ontof the plane ofrotation of said feeding means and thereby allow said feeding means'to engage- .witha portion thereof located in said plane, said rotatable means being movable into engagement with said: last mentioned portion of said sheet to extract a'sheet from said stack. 1 a

In a. feeding device-for feeding paper stock to a printing pressnthe combination of a hopper for-the stock and-a'pair of'qJpoarranged at the open end of the hopper having resilient means for frictionally'. engaging the stock, said means providing means of increasing frictional intensity and providing means for successively feeding stock from the hopper.

4. In a feeding device for feeding paper stock to a printing press, the combination of a hopper for the stock and a pair of oppositely rotatable discs having segments providing frictional means for engaging the stock and successively feeding the stock from the hopper. I

5. In a feeding device for feeding paper stock to a printing press, the combination of a hopper for the stock and a rotatable disc having a segmental portion providing frictional means providing means for engaging the stock and successively feeding the stock from the hopper.

6. In a feeding device for feeding paper stock to a printing press, the combination of a hopper for the stock and a rotatable elementhaving means for frictio'nally engaging the stock, said means being intermittently rotatable into and out of the plane of the hop- 7 per and providing means of increasing frictional intensity.

7. In a feeding device for feeding paper stock to a printing press, the combination of a hopper for the stock and a pair of rotatable discs each having a resilient element providing frictional means intermittently rotatable in synchronism into and out of the plane of the hopper.

8. In a feeding device for feeding paper 7 stock to a printing press, the combination of a hopper for the stock and a pair of oppositely rotatable elements having means for frictionally engaging the stock and providing means of increasing frictional intensity, said means being movable insynchronism into and out of engagement with the stock con- 1930. CLAUDE L. POST. 

